On June 23rd, the MCC Group convened a job promotion meeting to forge a national team in metallurgical construction, heard work job reports concerning the national team construction of each unit, held an in-depth discussion on the topic of continuously promoting the construction of a national team, and officially issued the Action Guidelines for National Team in Metallurgical Construction. China Minmetals General Manager and MCC President and Party Committee Secretary Guo Wenqing attended the meeting and made an important address.

In his address, Guo Wenqing emphasized that this was a very important and timely meeting. The issuance of the Action Guidelines for National Team in Metallurgical Construction is an achievement solidified after straightening out and perfecting the practice for one year after the issuance of the top-level design scheme the national team in metallurgical construction, which marks that the national team in metallurgical construction has entered a new starting point and a new stage, and is of great and profound significance for MCC’s long-term development. He then put forward four working requirements for creating a national team in metallurgical construction:

First, it is necessary to fully realize the importance and urgency of constructing a national team from the perspective of strategy. As a traditional metallurgical enterprise, history endows MCC with profound feelings on steel and iron, but those feelings cannot take the place of sense. In the face of the general situation of the iron and steel industry both domestically and overseas, along with the enterprise’s demands, each subsidiary must profoundly understand and master the importance and urgency creating a national team in metallurgical construction from the perspective of strategy. The first point is to demand compliance with the development tendencies of the iron and steel industry worldwide. The world's iron and steel industry has entered a third in-depth adjustment phase, the state of high-speed development in the industry is gone forever, and MCC not only needs to exist but to develop better in this lengthy in-depth adjustment phase so as to positively adapt to the needs of the reduced demand side. The second point is the necessity to earnestly carry out national strategies. The iron and steel industry is the first to be affected by the structural reform deployment on the supply side made by the Party Central Committee, involving 'cutting excessive industrial capacity, de-leveraging, lowering costs and improving weak links' as its key points. The series of policy documents including the State Council’s Opinions on the Steel and Iron Industry to Resolve Excessive Industrial Capacity, Solve Poverty and Implement Development set clear goals and tasks for all regions to resolve their excess industrial capacity in steel and iron during the '13th Five-year Plan', and resolving excess industrial capacity has entered into the comprehensive implementation phase. MCC must earnestly carry out an important national strategic deployment, give full play to its own advantages, guide and drive structural reform on the supply side in the steel and iron industry with its own innovation promotion, and promote China's steel and iron industry to become stronger. The third point is the demand to solve problems in steel and iron enterprises. MCC has served steel and iron enterprises for many years. As to the pessimistic management situation in the industry, the difficulties in receiving accounts receivable have increased. Since the risk of enterprises has further increased, it is necessary to quickly quit and escape from high-risk business fields so as to dispel fears of attacks from behind. The fourth point is the demand for MCC to integrate its resources. The market space for the metallurgical construction of steel and iron has shrunk comprehensively; it can no longer support the demands for the existence and development of MCC, and it cannot take up all the limited resources of the industry.

In recent years, based on forward-looking judgment concerning the steel and iron situation, the MCC Group has implemented bold strategic adjustments, vigorously expanded the market and proposed forging the updated version of the 'Four Beams and Eight Columns' business system, while integrating its superior resources to strive to be the world's strongest, largest and best national team in metallurgical construction, which is a path sounded out and explored in development and a correct and effective approach that has been proven by practice. Each subsidiary must accurately implement the Group’s strategic deployment and both simplify and develop the administrative structure rapidly in the metallurgical construction field. Retaining and matching the most suitable of our limited high-grade resources and forging the world's first 'national team' can make our traditional advantages stronger and more excellent, while also freeing up further resources to be invested in other business fields with wider market prospects, higher efficiency and greater benefits.

Second, it is necessary to firmly grasp the commanding height in order to lead the enterprise to develop to the world's highest standard. MCC's first place ranking among main businesses confirmed by SASAC is in metallurgical engineering contracting, the first column of the Group's 'Four Beams and Eight Columns'. This has determined that we must insist on regarding problems as orientations, occupy the commanding heights of technology and markets, and keep an absolute world-first position in the metallurgical field. The first point is to firmly occupy the commanding height of technologies. All the subsidiaries in the first echelon of the eight departments and nineteen business units of metallurgical construction shall forge high-end units while setting 'world-first' as their goal, ensuring the overall strength of the national team in metallurgical construction and remaining world-first with their world-first business units. To ensure sufficient R&D expenditure and input, the continuous promotion of each subsidiary's patents and technologies must be guaranteed; the most excellent talents will be integrated into the first echelon, the best conditions will be created for the first echelon politically, economically and in working environments, and the appraisal mechanism shall be stricter, thereby ensuring the strongest battle array of the first echelon. Equipment manufacturing shall truly become a 'hard support' for the national team in metallurgical construction; as such, it is necessary to emphasize professional, refined, special and new products but not to emphasize scale, to generate core technologies researched and developed by the national team in metallurgical construction in equipment manufacturing enterprises, and to realize carrying technologies through to the product stage and rushing them to the world. The second point is to firmly occupy the commanding height of the market. It is necessary to implement the technical advantages of a national team in metallurgical construction in both the market and concrete projects, to maturely cultivate technologies researched and developed in the market, to allow technologies and products to display their benefits in the market and projects, to form market advantages, and to ultimately realize an increase in the global market share of metallurgical construction from the current 60% to 80%. Design enterprises shall learn from the market development experience of construction enterprises so as to improve the 'weak links' in the market, and put forth efforts to promote their market development capacity. The Group shall organize design enterprises and construction units to jointly research strategies and policies for solidifying and developing the market, resolutely preventing passive situations in which the first echelon does not win major projects, the second and third echelons do not follow up, and the projects are lost. The MCC Group shall undertake the national responsibility of guiding and driving international capacity cooperation to realize the breakthrough of the Chinese steel and iron industry going global, through such methods as cooperating with overseas enterprises and purchasing top-level international enterprises.

Third, it is necessary to rapidly promote the implementation of the construction of a national team with no efforts spared. The Action Guideline has constructed a talent formation of a national team, and will make a dynamic regulation for allocating personnel according to the development trend and the market changes in the steel and iron metallurgy industry in the next step, but the total number of people shall be controlled to about 25,000. It is necessary to maintain the stability of core talents and mobilize their positivity as the key factors in creating a national team in metallurgic construction. It is necessary to recruit more talents, select and cultivate top-level talents and leading personnel, integrate the most excellent talents in China and even in the world into the enterprise, and strive to cultivate more state-level design masters and academicians of the CAE. It is necessary to establish a positive atmosphere, enable all kinds of talents to sufficiently show their skills under the MCC banner in different positions, and enable them to be passionate about their work, make contributions and attain a sense of achievement and a sense of acquisition. In the process of implementing the construction of a national team, it is necessary to insist on freeing our minds and pursuing sustainable innovation. This is not only required to improve the perfection of the operating mechanism of a national team, but also to avoid the rusting of that operating mechanism and the throttling of the national team's vitality. The main problems of our lowering thoughts, weakening market force and reducing innovation vigor shall be completely eradicated after the solidification of the national team model, and this is necessary for ensuring that MCC will become a national team in metallurgical construction and maintain its world-first innovation vigor and lasting market force.

Fourth, it is necessary to accelerate transformation and upgrading and to recreate a new development tendency. Following the strategic recombination of China Minmetals and the MCC Group, China Minmetals and MCC shall develop together and MCC must develop steadily. The key points for deciding whether MCC’s steps for the future development can be made more stable, powerful and splendid are to quicken the steps of the transformation and upgrading as well as the innovation and development of the enterprise. All subsidiaries shall take the implementation of a national team in metallurgical construction as an important opportunity, unswervingly advance along the high-tech leading development road, further optimize the allocation of resources and improve weak links in development, quickly allocate the resources and power transferred out of the formation of the 'national team' in the non-steel field, rapidly extend and transfer experience in engineering technology and multidisciplinary and multi-specialty integration advantages formed over many years as new advantages in capital construction and emerging industries, and provide new engines and new power for the enterprise to improve its quality and effectiveness, and realize transformation and upgrading. The MCC Group must forge a national team in metallurgical construction based on its level, have the courage to be the world's number one, and entirely combine its traditional advantages with new advantages to form the world's most powerful advantages. The goal of forging a national team is not for MCC or China but for the world; the vision of forging a national team is not in the past or the present but in the future!

This promotion meeting was convened as a reaction to important achievements recently made in the work of MCC to forge a national team in metallurgical construction. Over just one year of construction, the national team has made significant progress in such aspects as organizational structure, business system, science and technology innovation system and operating mechanism. For talent allocation, a national team of talent formation has been constructed. The formation covers eight divisions, namely raw materials, coking, sintering & pelletizing, iron making, steel-making & continuous casting, hot-rolled strips, long beams, and cold-rolling, as well as 19 business units in the field of the iron and steel industry, making 23,372 people in total. There are 4,496 people in the first echelon in the design field, including 740 people in processing, 1,744 people in public auxiliary facilities, 702 people in equipment, 357 people in research and development and 953 people in project management; and there are 18,876 people in the construction field, including 10,565 civil engineering and steel structure major technicians, 5,809 electromechanical technicians, 615 furnace kiln technicians and 1,888 people in project management.

In the late morning, MCC General Manager and President Zhang Zhaoxiang organized all the design subsidiaries and construction subsidiaries to hold a forum at which reports were heard on completed jobs, gained performance and existing problems in the national team construction work of all units in detail, and an in-depth discussion of carrying out the work of the next step was held. At the plenary session in the afternoon, MCC CERI, Shanghai Baoye, CISDI (the first echelon of iron making), WISDRI (the second echelon of iron making) and MCC Huatian (the first echelon of bars and sectional materials) each made exchange statements.

This meeting was attended by Group and joint-venture company leaders, chief engineers, chief economic managers, assistant presidents, general counsels and safety directors, the principals of the China Minmetals Corporate Planning and Development Department and Science and Technology Management Department, the principals of the functional departments of the Headquarters, the principals of all the design, scientific research, construction and equipment enterprises, the principals of the specialty business division in the first echelon, and all the members of the Committee of Experts for the Construction of a National Team.